Some quotes from Bruce Feldman’s article in The Athletic:
“Florida, they just don’t play hard,” said an SEC East coach. “Georgia is trying to rip your head off. They might be up 30-0 and their linebackers are flying up field to get after your ass. Florida is a finesse team. Kentucky plays hard. You watch UF on tape. They’ve got skill but they’re not physical.”
“They play with zero discipline,” said one SEC offensive coach whose team faced the Gators this season. “They don’t play hard.”
“We were more physical and much better than them in the box,” said another SEC offensive coach. “We were mauling them.”
An SEC East defensive coach wondered, “What in the world are they trying to get done?” as he scouted the Gators’ wretched defensive performance from 2020.
“Last year, they were doing some really unsound things defensively,” he said. “They just do some crazy, goofy things. They’re odd.’”
Earlier this season, the Gators looked like a much-improved defense when they went toe-to-toe with Alabama, but opposing coaches have come to believe that’s not the case.
“We thought going in that it was going to be one of the best defenses we faced,” said an SEC offensive coach. “But they just weren’t physical. They don’t look motivated. Not fired up. No juice.”
“Schematically, they make no adjustments on defense. They have no answers. They’ll stay in a 2-high shell as long as they can. They walk (Jeremiah Moon) down to create a five-man front and think they can stop the run with just that, but they can’t.”
Grantham spends all of his time on third-down packages with exotic pressures,” said an SEC offensive coach. “You can run the ball on them on third downs. …There’s no one in their front seven that scares you. They used to have defensive ends that were pass-rush phenoms. They used to have shut-down corners. They don’t have either now.”
That coach said preseason All-SEC cornerback Kaiir Elam “was disappointing.” Elam made his lone interception of the season in Week 2 against USF, and made mistakes against Alabama despite breaking up three passes. He subsequently missed three conference games with a leg injury but remains in position to enter the draft as an underclassman.
Dane Brugler, draft analyst for The Athletic, said Elam “has been ordinary in the three tapes I’ve done. You just wish he made more plays out there. But his traits are still a ticket for a top-40 pick.”
The Gators now face something dreaded within the landscape of SEC football: A reputation for being soft.
“Georgia is trying to take your soul the way they play the game,” said one of the SEC East coaches. “That’s not how Florida plays.
“Last year, we thought these guys were soft on the O-line but they had skill guys — (Kyle) Pitts and (Kadarius) Toney and weapons. We thought they were more physical up front, but then you play them and they’re just not a tough team. They just don’t finish. They don’t strain.”
“You listen to some of the things Mullen says after his teams lose. He starts talking about stats and how like, ‘We really outplayed them.’ Basically, he’s just making excuses,” said an opposing assistant. “Your bunch makes mistakes in critical moments.”
“You look at them in warmups — guys with their T-shirts hanging out. They look sloppy. A little too nonchalant, too rag-tag,” an SEC assistant coach said. “They think they’re better than they are.”
“Florida, they just don’t play hard,” said an SEC East coach. “Georgia is trying to rip your head off. They might be up 30-0 and their linebackers are flying up field to get after your ass. Florida is a finesse team. Kentucky plays hard. You watch UF on tape. They’ve got skill but they’re not physical.”
“They play with zero discipline,” said one SEC offensive coach whose team faced the Gators this season. “They don’t play hard.”
“We were more physical and much better than them in the box,” said another SEC offensive coach. “We were mauling them.”
An SEC East defensive coach wondered, “What in the world are they trying to get done?” as he scouted the Gators’ wretched defensive performance from 2020.
“Last year, they were doing some really unsound things defensively,” he said. “They just do some crazy, goofy things. They’re odd.’”
Earlier this season, the Gators looked like a much-improved defense when they went toe-to-toe with Alabama, but opposing coaches have come to believe that’s not the case.
“We thought going in that it was going to be one of the best defenses we faced,” said an SEC offensive coach. “But they just weren’t physical. They don’t look motivated. Not fired up. No juice.”
“Schematically, they make no adjustments on defense. They have no answers. They’ll stay in a 2-high shell as long as they can. They walk (Jeremiah Moon) down to create a five-man front and think they can stop the run with just that, but they can’t.”
Grantham spends all of his time on third-down packages with exotic pressures,” said an SEC offensive coach. “You can run the ball on them on third downs. …There’s no one in their front seven that scares you. They used to have defensive ends that were pass-rush phenoms. They used to have shut-down corners. They don’t have either now.”
That coach said preseason All-SEC cornerback Kaiir Elam “was disappointing.” Elam made his lone interception of the season in Week 2 against USF, and made mistakes against Alabama despite breaking up three passes. He subsequently missed three conference games with a leg injury but remains in position to enter the draft as an underclassman.
Dane Brugler, draft analyst for The Athletic, said Elam “has been ordinary in the three tapes I’ve done. You just wish he made more plays out there. But his traits are still a ticket for a top-40 pick.”
The Gators now face something dreaded within the landscape of SEC football: A reputation for being soft.
“Georgia is trying to take your soul the way they play the game,” said one of the SEC East coaches. “That’s not how Florida plays.
“Last year, we thought these guys were soft on the O-line but they had skill guys — (Kyle) Pitts and (Kadarius) Toney and weapons. We thought they were more physical up front, but then you play them and they’re just not a tough team. They just don’t finish. They don’t strain.”
“You listen to some of the things Mullen says after his teams lose. He starts talking about stats and how like, ‘We really outplayed them.’ Basically, he’s just making excuses,” said an opposing assistant. “Your bunch makes mistakes in critical moments.”
“You look at them in warmups — guys with their T-shirts hanging out. They look sloppy. A little too nonchalant, too rag-tag,” an SEC assistant coach said. “They think they’re better than they are.”
